Monday, June 8, 2009

We are constantly bombarded with the sound byte -- "taxpayers money". Thiscontains the assumption that the revenue collected by the capitalist statein the form of taxation is the money of taxpayers. This obviously impliesthat the taxpayer in some way owns this money. In the first place thetaxpayer is a category that can include all classes since each of the socialclasses pays taxes. This constitutes an attempt to suggest that thereobtains a deep unity between the classes. Assuming that this basis existsthen there is only a short way to go towards politically creating an allclass alliance.

But the point is that state revenue in the form of taxation is justthat --state revenue. It is revenue owned and controllled by the state. Itis not the revenue of the taxpayers. This is why the expression "taxpayersmoney" is so misleading in the struggle against capitalism. It misrepresentsthe class interests of the working class and seeks to subordinate thoseinterests to that of the capitalist class in an all class alliance. Thepoint is that taxation is extracted from the working class by the force ofthe state. The working class have no choice in the matter within the contextof capitalism. The working class has only choice with the context of analternative --the alternative between capitalism and communism. This meansthat the workers, to challenge this imposition of tax on it, must mount anattack on the political state as part of an integral programme to attack anddetroy capitalism.